1000 days in!

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 marks 1000 days since we moved to Canada, which warrants a quick blog post.
We're very happy here, the kids have settled right in, which was the biggest concern for Olga and I. All their various sports keeps us extremely busy, but since our house move last Summer, we now live very close to the city's main sports centre, where Lara has her swimming lessons (once a week), gymnastics (once a week), taekwondo (twice a week) and skating (three times a week). Dan has his skating and gymnastics there too, both twice a week.
I could spend much of the night trying to dig out a few photos and videos that sum up the last 1000 days, but for now, I'll settle on posting this video from last week, of Lara being given her yellow belt in taekwondo...



Olga and I will have a little celebratory drink in the back garden once the kids are in bed, and toast the next 1000 days!

(oh, and well done to Leicester City, winning the Premier League on our day 999, at odds of 5000-1)

Mexico Album, at last

Only two months after we returned from our winter getaway to Mexico, I've got around to picking 19 photos from the 200 I have, for an album.

Tarzan Dan

Here's a quick clip of Dan at his gymnastics class yesterday, he loves it..

Lara's first skiing award

Lara had her final race of the season on Saturday, it's only an "internal" race, but it's still all done properly, with gates and timing. Parents are allowed to race in this one too, but Lara opted not to challenge me, though it'll be interesting if the club publish the skiers' times, to see how we compare. In her age group - the 2007 females - she came sixth, just edging out her best skiing pal, Lillian, into seventh. Lara was absolutely delighted to finally have her name called out, and to get a ribbon from Brady Leman, the Canadian SkiCross champion. 

It was a lovely end to the season, and came at just the right time to encourage her for next season, as she was becoming a little dispirited with not getting any reward for her other races this season, even though she has been performing better and better each time. Her coach, Sergey, has recommended that she move up to the next ability level for next season, which will be a jump up in commitment for us all - last year she had 18 days on snow, this season has been 33 days, and next season will be 56 days! It's an earlier start in the season, a later finish, and plenty of midweek evening skiing at Calgary Olympic Park too.

The skiers got to dress up for this race, and Lara's group chose a Big Cat theme, with Olga spending many hours in the week before the race making Lara's cheetah suit from scratch. Sergey was a very convincing lion, too...

Happy 4th Birthday, Danil

Dan turned 4 today, and he celebrated with some skiing in the morning, then a trip a play centre in the afternoon, before cake and presents at home.

Lovely fresh snow made it soft to fall on, not that Dan falls very much, he tends to just sit down when his legs get tired..

Lara conquered the climbing wall, behind Mama, Dan's still a year too young for that.

It was strangely quiet on the pistes for a relatively warm Sunday morning with fresh snow around